Contents:

Welcome
Upcoming Events
What's New
GrandMaster Updates

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Welcome!

September 2003 - Welcome to the latest edition of The Payroll News. As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and associates who are interested in keeping up with the latest changes in the Payroll industry. Or better yet, subscribe them for free using the Tell Others About Us link.

Upcoming Events

Listed here are recent changes in legislation on Federal and Provincial levels that may impact your payroll calculations. Please view the following list for changes that affect your region.

FEDERAL:

August 19, 2003 - Government Launches Website for Foreign and Skilled Worker Hiring - Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) is pleased to announce the launch of its new site on the hiring of foreign workers and skilled workers in Canada. Designed for employers and employer representative, the new site reflects a number of regulatory and operational changes introduced by the Government of Canada under the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). (Full Story)

August 4, 2003 - Two Youth and Employment Related Websites to be Merged - The Government of Canada is merging its two very popular youth Web sites - Youth.gc.ca and Youthpath.ca – to create one single window to all information for and about youth. Beginning August 4th 2003, all Government of Canada information for youth will be located at www.youth.gc.ca. (Full Story)

Alberta:

August 25, 2003 - Government of Canada funding to help youth develop employability skills - MP Anne McLellan today announced Government of Canada funding of $186,977 for a youth project designed to help 15 young people in the Edmonton area. Under the project, the Youth Emergency Shelter Society will provide the 15 participants with a 26-week community service and employability skills project. (Full Story - 445 Words)

British Columbia:

August 15, 2003 - Action on Kamloops findings create safer workplaces - New provincial government human resources practices that promote workplace safety and excellence are detailed in a report that responds to recommendations arising from last year’s shooting deaths at the Kamloops office of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. Vince Collins, Deputy Minister of the B.C. Public Service Agency, issued the report today. The report follows from the recent recommendations of the coroner’s jury, Workers’ Compensation Board and a Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection union/management committee. (Full Story - 436 Words)

July 28, 2003 - WCB makes it easier for B.C.'s employers to manage their business - The B.C. Workers' Compensation Board has developed Clearance Alert, a new application which is available online at its web site, WorkSafebc.com. This new application automatically advises users of any changes in a contractor's status with the WCB. (Full Story - 431 Words)

July 25, 2003 - WCB funds Provincial Health Services Authority to prevent injuries to health care workers - Today the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C. (WCB) and the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) announced a joint $645,000 program that will result in fewer health care workers being injured while lifting and transferring patients. (Full Story - 444 Words)

New Brunswick:

August 14, 2003 - Employment training for people with disabilities - The first class of a distance employment-training course for people with physical disabilities graduated recently thanks to a unique partnership between the federal and provincial governments and the Neil Squire Foundation. A total of $175,475 has been injected to the pilot phase of the program offered by the Neil Squire Foundation and supported by other partners including Connect NB Branché and TeleEducation NB. This initiative is funded by Government of Canada and the Province of New Brunswick through the Canada-New Brunswick Employability Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Agreement. (Full Story - 680 Words)

August 8, 2003 - JOB Start Strategy accomplishes more than half of its goal in just four months - The provincial government's JOB Start Strategy has accomplished more than half of its goal in the first four months since the plan was announced in February, Training and Employment Development Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney said today. "This initiative is a long-term plan for the province's future prosperity, and the facts from the first quarter of this fiscal year make me very confident that the JOB Start Strategy will continue to provide results," Blaney said. "It has assisted 559 post-secondary students so far which represents over half of its target of 1,000 students." (Full Story - 519 Words)

August 1, 2003 - Minimum wage to increase by 20 cents - A 20-cent-an-hour increase to the provincial minimum wage will take effect Jan. 1, 2004, Training and Employment Development Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney announced today. "We will be increasing the minimum wage in the province by 20 cents as part of our commitment in our platform Reaching Higher, Going Further," Blaney said. "This increase will benefit thousands of New Brunswickers and is the first installment of our phased in approach to increasing the minimum wage to $6.60 during our current mandate." (Full Story - 468 Words)

Newfoundland and Labrador:

August 8, 2003 - Employment numbers show best July since 1989 - According to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, employment for the province continued to make gains with record highs for employment, participation rate, labour force size, and employment rate for the month of July. Employment increased 0.7 per cent, or 1,700 jobs last month, as compared to the same time period last year. (Full Story - 384 Words)

Saskatchewan:

August 25, 2003 - Creating jobs in rural Saskatchewan - Four community organizations in southwest Saskatchewan were recognized today for their job creation records through the province's Small Business Loans Association (SBLA) program. SBLAs in Gravelbourg, Ponteix and Assiniboia have helped businesses create a total of 122 jobs and maintain 130 others. Since becoming SBLAs, they have made 174 loans totaling more than $1 million to local businesses. (Full Story - 317 Words)

August 8 , 2003 - Job numbers top half-million mark again - Saskatchewan's employment numbers are at historic highs, topping the half-million mark for the second month in a row. Figures released today by Statistics Canada showed 500,300 people working in Saskatchewan in July (seasonally unadjusted), an increase of 6,100 over July 2002. The figure is the highest ever for the month of July and marks the 15th straight month of job growth in the province. (Full Story - 406 Words)

2002 Wage survey - The 2002 Survey of Wages in Saskatchewan is now available. Working with employers, Saskatchewan Labour, the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board and Human Resources Development Canada have gathered information from almost 800 provincial employers about wages for more than 240 occupations. (Full Story - 977 Words)

Yukon:

August 15, 2003 - Personnel Changes to WCB and Appeals Tribunal Board - The Minister Responsible for the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board, Peter Jenkins, has appointed Phil Dyke as the new alternate chair of the board. The Minister has also re-appointed Michelle Kolla as a worker representative on the board. "Phil Dyke has a great deal of experience and expertise when it comes to the Yukon workplace, and he has also been active in community boards and organizations,” Jenkins said. “Michelle Kolla has shown dedication and commitment representing Yukon workers since she was first appointed to the board in July, 2001." (Full Story - 345 Words)

The current release of GrandMaster Suite (3.80.04) incorporates a number of changes to make it even easier to use the program and perform your payroll tasks. Recent program changes since our last Payroll News issue include:

• Added export capabilities to Earning and Deduction Reports - Features have been added to enable the exporting of selected printed information to a CSV file format which can be read by common spreadsheet programs.
• Adjusted Sort Order on Journal Entry - When the sort order for the Journal printout was different then the sort order of the export file, the formatting of the account number was not always displayed correctly.
• Alpha amount on pay cheque differs from numeric amount - Alpha amounts from $10.00 to $19.00 were being printed as zero to $9.00.
• Clawback on vacation pay did not show the clawback - When paying vacation pay and the option to "not allow negatives" was set, any amount exceeding the balance in the accumulator is clawed back with a negative amount. The totals were properly updated but the withdrawal or clawback was not being printed on the pay stub or register.
• Transfer from accumulator "A" to "B", left the balance in "A" - When transferring the balance from one accumulator to any other, the amount being transferred was not removed from the first accumulator. Manual adjustments will have to be made to the transfer.
• Payout of accumulator did not Journalize - Autopay out of the accumulators did not generate a journal entry item. The Journal Entry will have to be modified manually.

Stay tuned to CanPay's Product News page to receive the latest changes and release information for all GrandMaster products!

Last month's article concluded an overview of the factors required to determine if an employer-employee relationship exists or if it is a business relationship. If you are not able to determine the relationship, you will have to obtain a ruling from the CCRA. The following article discusses this process.

Introduction
A ruling is an official decision issued by an authorized officer of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA). A ruling states whether a worker is an employee or is self-employed, and whether or not that worker's employment is pensionable or insurable. It may also indicate the amount of pensionable or insurable earnings a worker has and whether or not Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions and Employment Insurance (EI) premiums must be paid. A ruling can also indicate the number of insurable hours an employee has in insurable employment.

Requesting a ruling
An employer, an employee, or a person claiming to be an employer or an employee can request a ruling. If an employer is not sure whether CPP contributions and EI premiums should be deducted from a worker's pay, the employer can request a ruling from the CCRA. The same is true for a worker who wants to know whether CPP contributions and EI premiums should be deducted from his or her pay.

An employer can request a ruling by sending a letter or a completed Form CPT-1 to the nearest tax services office. Similarly, a worker can request a ruling by sending a letter or a completed Form CPT-2 to the nearest tax services office.

The Canada Employment Insurance Commission (CEIC), an entity under the umbrella of Human Resources Development Canada, can also request a ruling. Generally, the CEIC will request a ruling when it is not sure whether the worker was working in insurable employment or had insurable earnings or insurable hours.

Time limit to request a ruling
A worker or an employer can request a ruling before June 30 of the year following the year to which the question relates. For example, if the employment took place in 2002, the ruling request has to be made before June 30, 2003.

Note that the CEIC is not subject to the same time limit. It can request a ruling from the CCRA at any time.

The ruling process
Once a ruling has been requested, an authorized CCRA officer will contact the worker and the employer to discuss the working arrangement that was (or is) in place. Sometimes the officer has to ask the employer for more information such as payroll records, copies of written contracts, or other related documents. On receipt of the necessary information, the officer will decide whether or not the worker was (or is) an employee working in pensionable or insurable employment for purposes of the Canada Pension Plan, the Employment Insurance Act, or both.

Once a ruling has been made, the officer sends a letter to the worker and the employer giving the reasons for the ruling. Every ruling can be appealed and the procedure for doing so is explained in the letter. More information about appealing a ruling can be found in the CCRA's pamphlet entitled Your Appeal Rights: Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan Coverage.